January 2026
I’m in a period of consolidation and clarity.
Less output. More intention.
Fewer gestures. Sharper ones.
Work
In November, I recorded a new album of vocal chamber music—composed, pared back, and politically awake.
It marks a decisive shift in my work: away from jazz as a primary identity, and toward a more fully notated, contemporary classical language shaped by jazz harmony, classical articulation, and disciplined restraint.
Improvisation appears only at the margins.
Most of the music is fixed—deliberate, architectural, and slow to reveal itself.
The ensemble is anchored by bass-baritone Rod Nelman, whose operatic voice defines the emotional gravity of the project, paired with cello as a second, shadowed voice. Together, they carry texts that confront human rights, climate collapse, gun violence, racial justice, and civic responsibility.
This album is not neutral.
It’s a conscious turn toward the role of artist-citizen—using composition as witness, refusal, and invitation. I’ve written music for music’s sake. This is something else.
The release is planned for later this year.
Ongoing Projects
Alongside the album, I’m returning—briefly and intentionally—to large ensemble writing, composing new big band charts for vocalist Atla DeChamplain. After several years composing outside the jazz idiom, this feels less like nostalgia and more like recalibration.
In April, I’ll premiere Jazz & Justice Suite: A Declaration in Seven Movements, a collaboration between the UConn Jazz Faculty and UConn’s Human Rights Institute. Each movement addresses a specific human rights concern—from political participation and racial justice to environmental advocacy, gender equity, and access to education.
This is music that insists on thought.
Life
My partner Jana is completing her M.A. in Peace & Justice, and our household has become a place where research, ethics, and lived experience regularly intersect. Our children are growing into their own trajectories, and our home remains active, loud, and grounding in the best ways.
I continue to run—not as performance, but as practice.
After a failed Boston qualification attempt, I’ve shifted focus toward shorter distances. Speed, efficiency, and recovery feel aligned with where I am right now.
Faith/Conscience
My spiritual life is still evolving. I no longer identify with evangelical Christianity—particularly where it has chosen power, exclusion, and political allegiance over humility, compassion, and intellectual honesty.
What I’m moving toward instead is a faith shaped by openness, doubt, and ethical seriousness. A faith that welcomes questions. A faith that centers human dignity. A faith that understands love as action, not alignment.
I’m less interested in productivity than precision.
Less interested in consensus than integrity.
The work going forward reflects that.
My now URL: nownownow.com/p/6dM7